1.3 – Dalek Empire I – “Death to the Daleks!”

Suz and Kalendorf have devised a secret plan to defeat the Daleks. But is it too late?

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Styre
on May 7, 2016 at 8:38 PM

DALEK EMPIRE: “DEATH TO THE DALEKS!”

After a suitable setup in “Invasion of the Daleks,” and a second part that was mostly filler, the initial Dalek Empire series needed to step things up in the third episode. This is certainly the case in “‘Death to the Daleks!,’” which kicks the series into high gear and winds it up into one of its natural climaxes.

The series builds towards the conclusion of this segment. While the Daleks have been willingly providing hope to their slaves in order to make them more efficient workers, they appear to have disregarded human independence: hopeful people do not become willing slaves. And so, with Suz and Kalendorf traveling the galaxy, sowing the seeds of rebellion, it is only a matter of time before the final plan is put into action. Of course, writer-director Nicholas Briggs rampis up the tension beforehand: we hear of the fall of Earth to the Daleks, and the general loss of faith evident in the remainder of the Earth Alliance. The mysterious Project Infinity is inserted back into the narrative, and presented as the last hope of humanity, and the one thing the Daleks absolutely cannot be allowed to find.

Of course, around this backdrop we find our central characters. Suz and Kalendorf grow increasingly distrustful, symbolic of Suz’s greater complicity with the Daleks. Alby Brook continues to pursue Suz across the galaxy, almost beyond hope. Pellan… well, Pellan is abruptly written out and replaced with Mirana (Teresa Gallagher), an interplanetary police officer. But the character is immediately given Pellan’s role of foil-to-Alby, begging the question of why the twist was written in the first place. Everything thus builds to Suz’s triumphant final moment as the Angel of Mercy: using her access to the entire slave population to broadcast the message “Death to the Daleks!” and sacrificing herself to start the rebellion. The revelation of her death is treated as a cliffhanger, but it shouldn’t be — it is the natural and intelligent conclusion to all that has gone before, and completes an elegant character arc for Suz that seemed to be stalling just one release before.

The performances in this third part of the Dalek Empire series are up to the usual standard of the set. Sarah Mowat continues to veer OTT whenever asked to sound commanding, but her quieter scenes convince and convey a great deal of emotion. Mark McDonnell finally captures his character perfectly, giving Alby just the right contradictory combination of obsession and apathy. Gareth Thomas continues to exist largely in the background, but still provides a stable point and a moral compass for Mowat’s performance. Gallagher sounds just like Nicola Bryant playing Peri, except convincing — though she’s reduced mostly to asking questions of Alby after the opening scene concludes. David Sax turns in a fine performance as Tanlee. Lastly, the Dalek voices of Briggs, Alistair Lock, and Steven Allen are superb, continuing to demonstrate why Russell T. Davies turned to BF artists to do his Dalek voices.

After the bizarre setting of the opening scenes — expertly realized by Briggs — the sound design takes a back seat in this largely dialogue-driven play, but Briggs’ work is solid as ever. The music, too, is an improvement over the first two parts. And with the pace kept up, and the tone kept consistent, Briggs’ superior direction becomes apparent as well.

“‘Death to the Daleks!’” is not a perfect production, but marks a significant improvement over its predecessors. It smoothly winds up the story that had been building through the first three plays — with one large hole: what are the Daleks up to? Yet with Suz’s story essentially told, one wonders what more Briggs has to say…